TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Google Beefs up Local Advertising With Logos

Google Beefs up Local Advertising With Logos

Michele Gershberg (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Fri, 31 Mar 2006 13:16:25 -0600

By Michele Gershberg

Internet search leader Google Inc. on Thursday began offering
marketers more features for local advertising, allowing them to add
logos and business information to their listings on a Google map.

Local advertising on the Internet is expected to be a prime driver of
growth in the sector.

The new features allow an advertiser to insert a business logo or
picture in a balloon that pops up next to its location on the Google
map, as well as provide additional information in several lines of
text, such as a phone number of business description.

It can be used by any advertiser targeting a local market, from a
neighborhood plumber to the closest restaurant of a national fast-food
chain.

"Since we launched maps last year, advertisers have come to us asking
for more control on (Google) local," Dominic Preuss, product manager
of local advertising at Google, told Reuters. "There has been really
strong demand for this."

The Google Local service already provides textual information on a
business when a user conducts a search, and a reference map with the
street address.

Advertisers can purchase the space through Google's AdWords program,
where marketers bid via an auction-style system for popular search
terms related to their business. Preuss said Google will not charge an
additional fee for the map icons, but the price will be determined by
the auction system.

"If people find these ads are more valuable they will bid higher," he
said. "It will simply be market driven."

Google has been testing the service over the last two weeks with a
handful of advertisers, including bookseller Barnes & Noble. The
features become available to the wider marketing community on Thursday
night.

Earlier this week, Google said it reached an agreement to allow
Verizon Communications Corp.'s online directory SuperPages.com to sell
Google search terms to its millions of listed businesses, aiming to
boost for its local advertising base.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

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